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Rizwan Adatia, chairman of a large commercial group and a philanthropist. was kidnapped on Thursday in Matola, outskirts of Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, a police source told Lusa today.
The car in which the businessman was travelling was found abandoned and the abduction is being investigated by the National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC), said Orlando Mudumane, spokesman for the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM).
Rizwan Adatia is a native of the Indian coastal city of Porbandar and chairs the COGEF group, with headquarters located in Maputo-Mozambique, which presents itself as the owner of 35 wholesale supermarkets (cash & carry), 190 stores, four manufacturing units and employing more than 3,500 people in nine African countries.
The entrepreneur created a foundation named after him (Rizwan Adatia Foundation), a non-profit organisation focused on reducing inequality in education, health and economic development in communities in Asia and Africa.
One of the foundation’s initiatives in Mozambique was the creation of a vocational training centre to promote micro-businesses, based in Matola, the municipality where Rizwan Adatia was abducted.
Rizwan Adatia Foundation presents itself as a participant in 18 strategic partnerships that benefit 740,700 people in Africa and Asia.
High Commissioner received a call yesterday at 5 O’Clock from family members of Mr Adatia about his kidnapping. We immediately alerted the concerned Mozambican authorities which are taking action in the matter. Mr. Raizwan’s family is aware of all these.
— India in Mozambique (@IndiainMoz) May 1, 2020
The latest abduction case under investigation by Mozambican authorities took place in March, when a child under 12 years of age was kidnapped by unknown individuals in Maputo CBD [Baixa}.
The victim is the son of a businessman at Armazéns África, a company specialising in the sale of electrical equipment, located on the same avenue where the crime occurred.
Video surveillance footage showed that the kidnappers pursued the child, who was on his way to school.
In February, in another case, four unknown individuals kidnapped a Mozambican businessman, Manish Cantilal, while parking in his garage: “violently” they took him into another vehicle, the police reported, also based on video surveillance footage.
In addition to these cases, Indian businessman Faizel Patel was kidnapped in January in the city of Beira, in the centre of the country.
No further developments were since brought to public about any of these cases.
The kidnapping of Rizwan Adatia is the fourth confirmed and under investigation in the country by Mozambican authorities in 2020.
In early April, the PRM detained five people suspected of involvement in other previous kidnapping crimes in Maputo and Inhambane provinces.
Of the five people, three are indicted for involvement in the kidnapping of Shelton Lalgy, son of the owner of transport company Lalgy, abducted in November 2019 in the city of Maputo, and released in February after a ransom was paid, the police announced.
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